This Very Edited American Life
For several years I've been a fan of the syndicated radio show "This American Life". They do long narrative stories around a single theme each week. Several months ago I picked up a tiny little cartoon-type book called "Radio," that explains how they do the show.

I've worked in the news business for more than a decade, but never in radio. Yet I was still surprised to learn exactly how much editing goes into that show. In one example in the book, they note that 12 hours of interviews were cut down to 15 minutes. But it's not just the amount of cutting - but the type of edits, such as removing phrases from sentences or replacing an "ahm" for an "ah" because it sounds better. (As in "Um, ah, I'm thinking. ...") From the book:

If you remove a phrase or sentence, you have to keep the rhythm natural. Usually that means keeping a breath after each sentence, at the edit points. Sometimes you have to try different breaths, to see which one sounds more natural."

- posted by Amy @ 11/14/2003 01:26:00 PM